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Dwight Poler '87

Dwight Poler ’87 was appointed to the Board of Trustees in July 2015. He joined Bain Capital in 1994 and was named managing director in 1999. He lives with his family in London, where he opened and manages Bain Capital’s European private equity business. He currently oversees investment of the €3.5 billion Bain Capital Europe Fund-IV.

Previously he was a consultant at Bain & Co. in Boston and London, and before that, was in the mergers and acquisitions practice at Morgan Stanley & Co., working in both New York and Tokyo.

Douglas C. Grissom ’89

Douglas C. Grissom ’89 was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2015. He works at Madison Dearborn Partners as a managing director on the Business and Government Services team, focusing primarily on software and software-enabled services. In this capacity, he serves on the Boards of Directors of BlueCat Networks, CoVant Technologies II, Fleet Complete and LGS Innovations. He was formerly on the boards of @stake, Aderant, Asurion, Cbeyond, Fieldglass, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, Intelsat, and Neoworld.

Outside of work, Grissom also serves on the Boards of Directors of Lincoln Park Zoo, METROsquash, the Museum of Science and Industry and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, and Churchill Downs.

Joseph F. Quinn '69

Joseph F. Quinn ’69 was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2014. He has been a member of the Department of Economics at Boston College since 1974, and has filled various administrative roles at the college, including faculty athletics representative, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and interim provost.

Quinn’s research, writing and teaching focus on public policy and the economics of aging. He is the co-author of two books—Passing the Torch: The Influence of Economic Incentives on Work and Retirement (1990) and The Economics of an Aging Society (2004)—and author or co-author of about 90 journal articles, monographs and book chapters. In addition to a B.A. in economics from Amherst, he holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

David Sutphen '91

David A. Sutphen ’91 was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2014. He joined 2U as chief communications and engagement officer in July of 2017 overseeing the communications, impact, public affairs, events and corporate brand teams. He is a former partner at Brunswick Group where he advised Fortune 500 companies and major charitable organizations on reputational, stakeholder engagement, crisis, litigation, diversity and public affairs matters, with a particular focus on the media, retail, technology and education sectors. Prior to Brunswick, he was a senior executive at Viacom and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Simon Krinsky ’96

Simon Krinsky'96 was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2014. He is a managing director and the director of portfolio management at Hall Capital Partners LLC, an independent investment advisor that manages multi-asset class investment portfolios. Krinsky serves on the firm's executive committee and investment review committee. He joined Hall Capital in San Francisco in 2002, later transferring to New York. He was promoted to managing director in 2006 and into his current role as director of portfolio management in 2013.

Patrick Fitzgerald '82

Patrick Fitzgerald '82 was elected to the Board of Trustees in 2013. He is a partner in the Chicago office of the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates.

As the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 2001 to 2012, Fitzgerald led numerous high-profile investigations and prosecutions, including the convictions on corruption charges of two successive governors of Illinois—George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich. As a special counsel, Fitzgerald was selected to lead the investigation of leaks in the Valerie Plame matter, and he tried the case of United States v. I. Lewis [“Scooter”] Libby. From 1996 to 2001, Fitzgerald was national security coordinator for the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in which capacity he served on a team of prosecutors investigating Osama bin Laden and was chief counsel in prosecutions related to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. As assistant U.S. attorney in New York City from 1988 to 1996, he prosecuted Mafia figure John Gambino, as well as Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 others charged in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Shirley Tilghman

Shirley Tilghman was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2013. She was president of Princeton University from 2001 to 2013, during which time she oversaw the hiring of more women to the faculty, extensive growth in the role of creative and performing arts on campus, multiple major initiatives in the sciences and engineering, an expansion of the undergraduate student body and the addition of four-year residential colleges, as well as the university’s $1.88 billion Aspire campaign.

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A Conversation with the New Board Chair

In July the Amherst Board of Trustees elected Cullen Murphy ’74, editor-at-large at Vanity Fair and a critically acclaimed author, as its new chairman. He succeeds Jide Zeitlin ’85, who served in the position since 2005.

How to Pick a Leader

By Charles R. Longsworth ’51

In June, one member of the 20-person Amherst Board of Trustees will succeed Jide Zeitlin ’85 as the group’s chair. How will this new leader be chosen?

The Trustees of Amherst College (more informally known as “the board”) are responsible for assuring that the college retains a qualified president, faculty and staff; gathers and manages resources needed to fulfill its mission; and is prudent and law-abiding. Six trustees are elected by the alumni body and 14 by the board.